I'm planning a review of the PS2 earthquake survival game Disaster Report, but I want to play the game through another time before I rip into it.
It's definitely a game with problems. The reviews that complain about slowdown are spot-on, unfortunately. For much of the game, your character runs in slow motion. I suppose that could be for dramatic intent, but cinematography should not be at the expense of gameplay. It would be different if the game was pushing some major beautiful stuff along with the slowdown, but it's not. The environments are large, but not massive, and there isn't a great level of detail. And everything - everything - is gray.
You could call it an adventure game, but you don't have a free-roaming world like in a Zelda or a Resident Evil. When you leave an area, the earthquake knocks down a building or floods your path so you can't ever go back. This fits the theme, sure, but it also effectively turns the game into a collection of minigames. Complete obstacle X, never go back. Complete obstacle Y, never go back.
There's several interesting sidebar features, like a nearly useless water meter, collectible compasses, and the strictest ignorable inventory system around, but I'll get into that later with the review.
